BUDGET NEWS STUNS OFFICIALS 'IT'S GOING TO BE BAD,' BURBANK'S OVRUM SAYS.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

City and school officials in Glendale and Burbank scrambled Friday to assess the impact of Gov. Gray Davis' proposed budget cuts and tax hikes.

The cities face possible multimillion-dollar cuts in public housing and redevelopment funds, and more than $10 million in other sources of direct revenue, like vehicle licensing fees.

``We expected bad, and it's going to be bad,'' said Burbank City Manager Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom.

On Friday, the governor outlined his plan to remedy the state's $35 billion budget deficit, proposing a total of $20.7 billion in cuts this year and next, including $4.5 billion in reductions to education, as well as various fee hikes and a massive shift of state health and welfare programs to local governments.

``We're still evaluating things here, but our first impression is that there are bigger hits than we imagined, both this year and next,'' said Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird. ``We need to begin to prepare plans to react immediately to this stuff.''

Among the rate hikes in Davis' proposal is a spike from $11 to $24 in per-unit registration for community college courses, an increase the Community College League of California lashed out against almost as soon as it hit the airwaves.

The plan would also decrease per-student funding by $658.

``It is unfair to students to increase fees and at the same time cut services,'' said John Davitt, president of Glendale Community College.

Greg Bowman, superintendent of the Burbank Unified School District, had not yet seen a detailed breakdown of the budget plan, but he, too, worried about the outcome and questioned the governor's approach.

``Education is the most important function of state government, next to security - we need to look at education and provide a sound long-term plan, rather than this feast-or-famine approach,'' Bowman said.

State Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, recently named chairman of the education subcommittee of the Senate's Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, hopes to help mitigate the damage of the cuts but conceded, ``Some difficult choices are going to be made.''

``My goal during the upcoming budget hearings will be to preserve the resources vital for our schools to focus on academic achievement,'' Scott said.

Glendale School District Superintendent Jim Brown has already scheduled community meetings for parents with concerns about the local impact of the state budget on schools.

The meetings will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 22 at La Crescenta High School; 7-9 p.m. Jan. 23 at Glendale High School; and 7-9 p.m. Feb. 5 at Hoover High School.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.